If you are a student of Chung-Ang University (CAU), there are somethings to do to graduate. It is necessary to fill the graduation credits and a Chinese character certificate. However, students' complaints about acquiring A Chinese character certificate have been an issue for years. Recently, employment difficulties have worsened, and the certification test required for graduation has been postponed because of COVID-19. For these reasons, CAU temporarily removed the Chinese character graduation requirements from graduates in August 2020 to graduates in February 2022. However, on February 28th, CAU announced that a Chinese character certificate will be included in the graduation requirements again from this year, and complaints from students are growing again. Let's find out in detail whether acquiring a Chinese character certificate is effective as a graduation requirement.
Introduction of Chinese Character Graduation Requirements
CAU added a Chinese character certificate to its graduation requirements in 2012. This system was introduced to cultivate Chinese character decoding ability. Academic Services Team of Da Vinci College of General Education said the purpose of the system is to promote excellence for academic exploration, understand East Asian civilization, and strengthen communication skills between countries using Chinese characters historically. All students at CAU must meet the Chinese character graduation requirements, except for those who passed the first state exam such as foreign affairs examination and bar exam, specialized physical education students, overseas Koreans, special education targets, and global knowledge management (special employment screening).
There are two ways to meet the Chinese character graduation requirements. One way you can obtain a certificate by taking an examination at an institution that supervises the Chinese Character Qualification Test, such as the Korean Language Society, the Korea Institute of Life-long Education Evaluation, or the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The criteria for applying Chinese character ability recognition vary slightly by category. Humanities and social sciences, business economy, natural engineering, and medicine departments must earn level 3 or higher, and arts and sports departments must earn level 4 or higher. Another way to meet the Chinese character graduation requirements is if you complete two or more Chinese character-related lectures on campus. As the lectures on Chinese characters on campus, The Da Vinci College of General Education has "The World of Chinese characters," "Global Chinese Character," "Practical Sino-Korean Letters," "Practical Chinese Character." In addition, “Ancient Chinese (1)” and ”Ancient Chinese (2)” are available in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature in the College of Humanities.
The Problems of Chinese Character Graduation Requirements
Lack of Effectiveness in the Job Market
As a result of a survey of 280 companies on the job site "Saramin" in 2020, the least needed specifications for hiring were "Chinese characters, Korean history certificates" (55.7%, multiple responses). The prevailing reason was the opinion that "they are not highly related to the job" (71.8%, multiple responses). On the other hand, the number one specification that job seekers must have been "work-related certificates" (66.1%, multiple responses), followed by "Intern Experience" (20.5%), "Authorized English Performance" (19.3%). CAU is going against this trend in the job market. If so, what graduation requirements are other schools applying in line with the changing job market? Sungkyunkwan University and Hanyang University commonly apply the 'Internship System' to school graduation requirements. Sungkyunkwan University introduced this system in 2013 and Hanyang University in 2020. Both schools are actively building an environment in which students can do internships to strengthen their employment capabilities.
Low Knowledge Accumulation Due to Simple Memorization Tests
CAU students tend to spend a very short period of about a week ahead of graduation to prepare for the Chinese character test. Rather than studying Chinese characters deeply, they tend to study urgently based on short-term memorization simply to meet graduation requirements. Students are also aware of the problem. Interviews were conducted with two Korean students (L, who is in their third year in the Department of Business Administration, and K, who is in their second year of the Department of English Language & Literature) who took a Chinese character test. The question was, do you think Chinese character graduation requirements help you develop Chinese character decoding skills? Both students responded negatively. L and K said that they quickly forgot the Chinese characters that they learned because they took a test using only their short-term memory. Additionally, L said that studying Chinese characters is not helpful because she doesn’t need to use Chinese characters for her major studies. K also said that it was a study to pass the test only, which did not at all match the original purpose of cultivating Chinese character decoding ability. Thus, the Chinese character knowledge acquired by rote memorization does not help students’ Chinese character decoding ability.
Students' Attempts to Abolish the Chinese Character Graduation Requirements
Students' complaints about the Chinese character graduation requirements have persisted for several years, and the 63rd student council Today of CAU has discussed with the school the abolition of the Chinese character graduation requirements. The 63rd student council of CAU conducted a survey on the abolition of Chinese character certificates from January 12th to 19th 2021 among enrolled students at the Seoul Campus. A total of 4,085 students participated in the survey, and 89.91% of the participants agreed that they would like to abolish the Chinese character certificate requirement. The 63rd Student Council delivered the opinions of students on the abolition of Chinese character graduation requirements to the presidency at the Leaders Forum held on campus on February 24th last year. In response, Vice President Paik Joon-ki said, "We need student representatives to participate in the regular academic consultative group and institutionalize school regulations, so we will finalize this while operating through the official consultative group." However, the Chinese character graduation requirements, which were exempted due to COVID-19, will be applied again to graduates in the first semester of this year, and the efforts of the 63rd Student Council have come to nothing.
Alternatives to Chinese Character Graduation Requirements
Like CAU, Korea University has included the acquisition of a Chinese character certificate in its graduation requirements since 2004. However, due to the continued opposition of students, the student council of Korea University's Seoul Campus demanded that the school abolish the Chinese character graduation requirements in April 2011. Soon after, in May 2011, the school announced that it would leave the authority to maintain the graduation requirements for Chinese character certification to each department individually. Some departments still maintain Chinese character graduation requirements, but it is an encouraging achievement that they students’ voices were heard. As in the case of Korea University, one option would be to leave the requirement to the departments' autonomy rather than forcing it on the university. Another option could be to change graduation requirements by obtaining practical certificates such as computer use certificates instead of Chinese character certificates.
Is it helpful for students to get a Chinese character certificate as a prerequisite for graduation? Chinese character graduation requirements are not essential for students due to insufficient power in gaining employment and low retention of knowledge due to simple short term rote memorization. Although the student council delivered students' opinions to the school through a survey, nothing has changed so far. CAU should listen to the opinions of students and consider revising the Chinese character graduation requirements once again.